Client Care Flashcards
What is client care?
Looking after client’s best interests
- Understanding their requirements, suggestions and complaints
- Analysing this to enhance service delivery, provide appropriate scope of service
- Satisfying client’s needs and achieving value for money
What processes do you undertake for client care?
- Understanding needs and requirements through meetings
- Complaints handling procedures
- Quality assurance procedures
- Key performance indicators
- Client feedback and questionnaires and meetings
- Lessons learnt feedback
- Professionalism and competence - training
- Trust, reliability, punctuality
- Good communication
Why is client care important?
- Retain clients, secure repeat business
- Reduce likelihood of conflict
- Protect company PI insurance
- Maintain stronger reputation within the industry
- Attract further clients
How do you conduct yourself with a new client?
- Well-mannered
- Good presentation
- Respectful
- Friendly and enthusiastic
- Genuine
Why is client care important for surveying firms?
- Majority of work developed through repeat business, important to encourage where possible
- Client satisfaction means positive testimonials and recommendations
- Dissatisfied clients can be damaging for getting new business
- Reduced potential for negligence claims
Why is it important to maintain existing client relationships rather than solely building new ones?
- Large % of commissions won through repeat business
- Promotes positive image of individual, company and industry
How do you identify / manage the client needs and expectations?
- Hold planning sessions / discussions regarding project key deliverables and scope of services required
- Appreciate unique nature of each client and project
- Review any complaints, identify mistakes and best practice methods of working
- Ask questions, listen and identify key challenges / issues
- Briefing checklists
- Seek further clarification if required
- Good listening
How do you build trust with a client?
- Learn about them and their objectives and challenges / limitations
- Only act within my level of competence
- Act in a professional manner
- Provide high level of service and transparency
- Difference between a client and a customer?
- Client - one under protection of another ongoing business relationship formed
- Customer - one who purchases commodity or service
What is the term ‘soft landings’ referring to?
Strategy ensuring transition from construction to occupation is ‘bump-free’, optimising operational performance
What is CPF?
- Client performance feedback
- During and after completion by independent party
- Feedback identifies areas for improvement, opens discussions to ensure goals achieved and satisfactory service delivered
- Provides opportunity to gain future work
- Regular intervals (every 3-6 months) ensures problems can be identified and rectified sooner
Please provide example of your client care and empathy skills?
- Multiple projects - ensure to prioritise each client’s needs accordingly
- Understand their individual expectations / challenges
- Make clients feel like their project is at the centre of my attention
- Good communication and delivery work in timely manner
- Deliver work to high standards
How do you encourage repeat business?
- High levels of service and customer care during projects
- Regularly obtain on feedback and act on it
- Deal with complaints / suggestions honestly and effectively
- Keep in touch, networking opportunities, CPD
Advantages / disadvantages of working from a client’s office?
:)
- Quicker and clearer lines of communication
- Better determine client culture, needs, expectations
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- Loss of technical support from colleagues
- Potential isolation from own organisation’s culture
What is a project stakeholder?
Person / organisation with an interest in a project
Please detail some quality management systems implemented on your projects?
- Contractor payment schedules
- Standardised contract administration forms and documents
- Procedural checklists
- Reporting templates
- Following industry guidance and advisory notes
- Follow company policy and procedures
What is a lessons learnt workshop?
- Review recent failing / success on a project
- Put new procedures in place to prevent failing happening again
- Review success and share with others
What are KPIs?
Key performance indicators - used to measure supply chain performance and benchmark against others
Examples of KPIs?
- Qty of defects / snags
- Construction cost overrun
- Achieving programme milestone
- Profitability
- H&S scores and reviews
- Environmental scoring
- Social value
What is your company’s procedure for obtaining formal client feedback?
- Client satisfaction surveys issued at key project stages and at end of project
- Checking in with client through formal reviews regularly
- Obtain regular informal feedback through verbal and email communication
How do you act on feedback received from a client?
- Ensure formally recorded
- Share positives, discuss how to improve negatives
- Verify any negative feedback and necessary course of action
- Feedback response to company via lessons learnt process
- Review improvement in suitable period (i.e. 6 months)
What is your company’s procedure for complaint handling (CHP)? / What must a complaint’s handling procedure include?
- 2 Stages as per RICS recommendation
1. Complaint reported to senior member of firm in writing as per CHP, must be acknowledged within 28 days, free of charge
2. If cannot be resolved this way, refer to independent redress mechanism (i.e. adjudication) approved by RICS. Must be transparent, impartial. Complainant may have to contribute to costs. Record all progress and outcomes, advise PI insurers
What is a complaint?
Expression of dissatisfaction, arising when expectations have not been met
You receive formal complaint from client in writing. What should you do regarding insurance?
Firm to notify insurance company ASAP
How would you deal with a complaint from a client?
- Acknowledge receipt and show empathy
- Establish bass of complaint
- Notify appropriate person in firm
- Appoint someone to investigate, identify outcome and course of action to rectify
- Formally respond to client, communicate outcome
- If still unhappy, refer to independent dispute resolution
- Communicate lessons learnt internally
- Review at predetermined date in the future
- Inform PI insurers of complaint at each stage
RICS guidance on complaints handling?
Complaints Handling - 2016. Updated in January 2022 in line with new rules of conduct
How can complaints be avoided in the first instance?
- Set clear expectations in scope of service and appointment documents
- Communicate clearly and effectively with client and other key stakeholders
- Good record keeping
- Follow company procedures and policies (i.e. QA)
- Follow RICS standards, professional statements and guidance
- Seek feedback, resolve issues as they arise
- Acting within the boundaries of my scope of services
If a client contacts you with a complaint regarding a document you have issued, what is your response?
- Acknowledge complaint, apologise, work to resolve complaint to their satisfaction
- If this doesn’t solve, refer client to firm’s complaint’s handling procedure for formal submission
- Inform PII providers ASAP
How do you complain about an RICS member / firm?
- Raise concern with member / firm
- Complain directly to them / firm via complaint handling procedure
- If no resolve, complain directly to RICS (form / directly)
What must a complaints handling procedure include?
- RICS provides model form
- Must have a redress mechanism
- Details of policy issued to client with the Terms of Business
- Quick, transparent, impartial, free of charge in first stage
- Names and contact details of nominated investigating person must be stated
- Complaint to be investigated within 28 days
- All complaints, progress and outcomes must be recorded
- Note need to advise PI insurers of complaint
- 2 stages:
Stage 1 - consideration of complaint by senior member of firm / complaints handling officer
Stage 2 - if issue isn’t resolved, complaint referred to independent 3rd party with authority to award redress. Complainant may be expected to contribute towards costs at this stage
What is a good CHP?
- Fit for purpose
- All employees aware and understand process
- Good record keeping, reviewing lessons learnt
- Process regularly reviewed and updated
- Readily shared with (potential) complainants
- Agreed with PII brokers / providers
What is an independent redress scheme?
- Consumer scheme designed to handle small issues that would be disproportionately expensive to take to court
- If scheme judges in favour of complainant, binding
- If judgement in favour of firm, complainant can escalate matter to court
- RICS firms must specify which redress scheme they want to use (could be ombudsman, arbitration or adjudication)
- If complaint relates to a large amount of money or if complainant wishes to, they can take matter to court
What would you do for a CHP if you were a sole practitioner?
If it cannot be handled by myself, refer to redress scheme
When would you notify PI insurers about a complaint?
If:
- Against negligence
- Reaches second stage
- Could lead to a claim
RICS guidance relating to client money handling?
Client’s Money Handling - professional statement. Oct 2019
What are the objectives of the RICS Client Handling Money professional statement?
- Clear rules for RICS regulated firms to have appropriate controls and procedures to keep money safe
- Confidence to clients and consumers that RICS regulated firms operating to high professional standards
Key requirements in the Client Money Handling professional statement?
- Client account requirements
- Appropriate accounting controls
- Info that firms must provide to clients
- How to handle client money inc rules for managing unidentified funds
What is meant by client’s money?
Money of any currency (cash, cheque, draft, electronic transfer) that:
- RICS regulated firm holds / receives on behalf of another person, inc money held by regulated firm as a stakeholder
- Not immediately due and payable on demand to RICS regulated firm for its own account
What is the RICS client money protection scheme?
Last resort scheme providing protection in unlikely event a firm is unable to repay client’s money (up to limits / exceptions set out in scheme rules)
If a client wants to pay in advance for your services, how would you deal with this?
- Set up separate account- clearly identifiable, provide client with access
- Refer to client money handling guidance note
- Inform client how and when monies will be drawn, provide statement
- Once services complete, send statement with all transactions
- Maintain transparency, auditability, ensure money has been checked for laundering
What is a client brief?
- Formal statement of objectives and requirements (functional, operational) of finished project
- Should enable integrated project team to execute spec and detailed design of work, essential reference for team
- Purpose is to provide firm foundation for project’s initiation
What info would you expect to see in a client’s brief?
- Services and insurances required
- Terms of appointment
- Duration of appointment
- Client procedures and policies
- Key drivers for success
- Fee
What might be excluded from a consultant fee proposal?
- VAT
- Disbursements
- Dealing with claims
- Services not required
What might be included in a consultant fee proposal?
- Scope of service - identification of Client needs
- Terms of appointment
- Basis of pricing
- Info on team (CVs, qualifications)
- Project details
- Timescales
- Insurances
- Exclusions and assumptions
What do you need to consider when preparing a fee bid?
- Stick to firm’s procedures
- Find out client requirements, identify whether it’s a service we provide
- Consider risks involved, resource available
- Varying levels of sign off (depending on value)
What makes up a fee bid proposal?
- Executive summary - including scope and solution
- Identification of Client’s needs, key deliverables, drivers
- Set out the benefits for the client
- Idenfication, analysis of project issues, methodology
- Relevant experience
- Conditions of engagement
- Organogram, CVs, any subconsultances
- Proposed fee
- Reference to programme
- QA procedures
How would you calculate professional fees on a new commission?
- Understand client requirements inc project scope, key project details, budget, scope of service
- Identify seniority of resource, no. people required
- Assess duration required
- Apply daily / hourly rate against activities
- Apply suitable allowance for OH&P
- Review total fee as % of project budget
- Agree % of contract value (% based), time charged or lump sum
If you put together a fee proposal and a few months into a project you realised you didn’t have enough resources to deliver, what would you do?
- If project requirements (services, scope, value) have increased, could be reasonable for fees to increase
- If scope has remained same, deal with the situation, accept any losses and get it right next time. Wouldn’t reduce level of service originally offered but may look for potential for increased efficiencies (i.e. meeting and valuation on same visit)
If the client gives you a lump sum fee before going on holiday what would you do?
Place funds in separately identified client account, agree drawdown of monies against services being provided with the Client
Can there be issues (from client perspective) by having all professional services delivered by one consultancy practice?
- Can be harder to be critical of colleagues of same company
- Perceived conflict of interest - especially when challenging potential errors or omissions
- Advantages include potentially more efficient team - work under same policies, procedures
On what grounds can you ask the client for additional fee?
- Dealing with insolvency of contractor (usually excluded from scope of service)
- Delay to programme
- Increased scope of service
After verbal agreement of services to be provided, what should you do?
Follow up in writing, confirming T&Cs, fee, scope of service
What is a consultant appointment document?
- T&Cs for services provided by consultant to the client
- RICS has standard and short forms if the business doesn’t have their own
When should you decline an instruction of new work from a client?
- (Potential) conflict of interest
- Instruction requires illegal / unethical action
- Conflict with RICS rules / standards
- If appointment wouldn’t be in the client’s best interests
- If firm is unable to resource job adequately / not enough capacity
- Project outset my skillset
- Client not prepared to pay appropriate fee
How would you limit the risk of working with a client who may be financially unstable?
- Company search - use Companies House website
- Credit safe credit check (i.e. Dun & Bradstreet)
- Internet search, i.e. website, additional info
- Make judgement on reliability
- Clear payment terms
If the client asked you to lower your fees, what would you do?
- They still have to pay required price for level of service required as per appointment document
- Review level of service required, discuss potentially reducing scope of works involved (i.e. not attending certain meetings, changing level of staff if client is satisfied with this)
Is an appointment document a contract under the construction act?
Yes - includes payment mechanisms and dispute resolution
